Z/Web

Cool like con-job movie with terrific performances from John C. Reilly and Diego Luna. Reilly’s the experienced con who take the young Luna under his wing, then the two get involved in a major sting involving a forged piece of currency. Of course nothing goes quite as planned and more and more people get involved into the scam. It’s funny, cool, and you aren’t sure what’s going to happen next. The ending’s a bit of a gimmick, but a little too outrageous. It’s similar to Matchstick Men.

I wanted to see this in the theatres despite the negative reviews but the timing didn’t work out. Now I’m glad I didn’t bother. The worst thing about this movie is that it is boring. It shouldn’t have been. The premise is great: an American long-distance riding champ goes to Africa to race 3,000 miles across the desert and beat the purebred Arabian horses with his wild Mustang. Unfortunately, endurance racing is like matching a marathon. It’s just endless riding, boring as watching sand blow. So the writers throw in all sorts of ridiculous side plots, involving battles, kidnappings, attempts to cheat, etc., to keep the movie interesting. The result is a dreary mess. You already know Hildago will win the race, so there’s no drama there, and the side plots are so obviously secondary we really don’t care about them. The film’s about 40 minutes too long, too. There are some good moments, but they are too few and too far apart. Mildly entertaining but mostly boring and meaningless.